"Where gold abounds so do rumours,......the converse is rarely true."
-Deadwood
This nugget from the Orex Wikipedia page:
Reliable production figures are only available for the Boston Richardson belt. From 1893 to 1912 mine production was recorded as 414 887 short tons grading 0.132 Oz/T (376 383 tonnes grading 4.53 g/t Au) for a total production of 54 871 ounces of gold. The head grade was estimated to be considerably higher at 6.8 g/t Au but poor technology at the time resulted in the lower recovered grade.[66] Anecdotal reports from the descendants of former miners indicate that a certain amount of loss due to theft occurred. This is possible due to the nugget nature of the gold found in the belts. It has been said that a lot more gold was taken out of the belts than was officially reported. Some claim that some mining families never worked for many decades following the closure of the mines yet always had money to spend.
Gotta wonder if Kevin slipped that in himself!
That being said, with the nugget effect I believe your average sampled grade should only asymptotically approach your true grade as sample size increases.
-L